6 Ways to Create SEO-friendly Landing Pages That Rank and Convert

Making a landing page that ranks and converts highly is just like trying to craft a perfect joke.

You're probably spending all of your time on the punchline.

But how much time have you spent thinking about what leads up to that punchline?

The set up, the timing, the tone you use, the way the punchline is delivered and even the audience you're telling the joke to—there are plenty of other factors to consider, when you really think about it.

For a landing page, the punchline is the CTA.

It may seem like the most important part. You might spend all of your time trying to get the CTA perfect.

But landing page SEO is also essential.

SEO is how you make sure you're leading the perfect audience to your CTA.

They're already prepared for that punchline. Whether you want them to join, subscribe or buy something, getting the landing page SEO right ensures that organic traffic hits your landing page ready to convert.

Let's dig a little more into why landing page SEO is so important, and then we'll walk you through all the right steps.

Landing Page SEO: Why So Important?

Quite simply, a landing page is the first page that site visitors arrive on. It might be a home page, marketing page, blog post or any other type of webpage.

The landing page is typically built to promote a product, service, free download, mailing list subscription or anything else.

For site visitors to convert into customers, they need to find that page and be inspired to take action.

But here's one essential part of a successful landing page that many people forget about: targeted traffic.

When you make your landing pages SEO-friendly, you're not just getting traffic: You're getting traffic that is primed to convert.

Of course, you'll need to balance the SEO with quality content, since all search engines place high value on quality content. If people find your landing page through organic search, click on it and find themselves in an ugly, empty shell of a page loaded with keywords, they'll disappear faster than a toupee in a hurricane.

You'll need to do some excellent writing and incorporate the most engaging content possible for your audience. The best landing page SEO practices gets warm leads to the page, grabs their attention and sells whatever you want to sell.

Follow the next six steps to create landing pages that are SEO-friendly enough to rank in the Google SERPs and user-friendly enough to score conversions.

6 Ways to Create SEO-friendly Landing Pages

1. Choose Keywords Carefully, Place Them Consistently

Keywords are the basis for any good SEO strategy, and you'll need to place them in your landing pages as well.

So, what kind of keywords should you be using?

Well, instead of just focusing on search volume when doing keyword research for your landing page, it's important to find keywords that show buyer intent.

What does this mean?

People typically search with certain terms when they're looking to buy. For example, searching for specific products or product categories, and including terms such as buy, affordable, discount, review or comparison show that the searcher isn't just looking for information: They're looking to buy.

So, when doing keyword research for a landing page, be sure to include keyword phrases that show buyer intent.

Once you find these gold-mine keywords, where should you put them?

• Headline: The title and subtitle of your page, as well as any other headers within your landing page, should include the exact keyword phrase that you are aiming for.

• URL: Create a simple, custom URL for your landing page that looks something like this:

yourdomain.com/your-exact-keyword-phrase/

• Meta Description: When adding your meta description, include your exact keyword phrase just like you would in any other page or post.

• Landing Page Copy: The copy of your landing page should include your keywords, but remember to always ensure that the placement is natural. Don't create sentences that are difficult to read just to include your keywords.

• AdWords Ads: If you're using an AdWords campaign to promote your landing page, make sure that you're targeting the same keywords that you've used in the places we mentioned above. Consistency is key here.

Using the right keywords will help search engines see what your landing page is all about, and will draw targeted traffic with the intent to make a purchase right to your landing page.

2. Keep Your Landing Page Hyper-focused

The whole point of your landing page is to draw people to the CTA button. You want them to click that button and convert into action-takers!

So, make sure that the whole focus of your landing page revolves around your CTA button. The best way to make it stand out is to contrast the color against the background in an appealing way.

Creating a user-friendly experience with your CTA button will also help improve your page's SEO rank. So, make sure that your CTA button is mobile-friendly, that it shows up above the fold, and (of course) that it works!

Check out how DigitalMarketer uses the CTA on this landing page:

It stands out from its background and uses the power word "instant" to encourage a click. Creating CTAs like this one will help improve the conversion rate for your landing page.

3. Include Motivational Social Proof

A convincing landing page should always include social proof. Check out how simple this can be:

I love this landing page from Fat Stone Farm for so many reasons, but check out how they used a simple testimonial for the products to create social proof. That short but sweet testimonial is 100% real, and shows off the most important points of their products.

But are you worried that people might not believe your testimonials?

Well, one way to show that your testimonials are reliable is by including an image of the person who gave the testimonial. You could also include Twitter cards as testimonials, like productivity app AirTable does:

Although it takes a bit more time, another great method is getting your happy customers to go on camera! Video testimonials have been named one of the most effective types of video marketing due to their inherent reliability.

Also, when your video includes a transcription, the text can be crawled by search engines. So, make sure your keywords appear in that video, and you'll be getting additional SEO benefits for your landing page!

4. List Benefits Alongside Features

On your landing page, don't just list features of your product or service: tell the story of how those features help your customers.

Check out how Duda does this:

Instead of just listing features, Duda goes into how those features benefit clients.

5. Keep Seasonal Landing Pages Up All Year Round

Each time you create a new page, that page needs to be optimized all over again for SEO. And, search engines usually favor websites and pages that have been online for longer.

So, instead of taking down those seasonal landing pages every year, leave them running! Then, when the time comes, simply adjust the copy and design to freshen up the page, and keep that SEO authority that you've already built up.

6. Get New Backlinks

Getting backlinks is obviously one of the most important aspects of a good SEO strategy.

But, how can you get backlinks to a landing page?

• Include shareable content: Including content that people like to share is a great way to get backlinks to any page, a landing page included. Including a fun infographic or even an interesting video testimonial like we mentioned above could be the gateway for new backlinks.

• Use interesting statistics and information: What kind of specific results have your customers found by using your service or product? Have you done any case studies that include interesting statistics? Mentioning those in your landing page can help generate new backlinks because, let's face it, people love to quote statistics!

• Contact the right influencers or bloggers: Who would want to share your landing page on their website? Would you be able to give these people a free trial of your product or service in exchange for a backlink? Getting in contact with the right people and offering some sort of exchange is a great way to generate new backlinks to your landing page.

• Add social share buttons on your thank you page: Once people have downloaded that fantastic book, signed up for your free trial, or taken any other action, they'll probably be happy to show their appreciation. Add some fun social share buttons and get people to share your landing page online, just like HubSpot did here:

• Use the right anchor text: If you have control over the anchor text that is used in your backlinks, it's always a good idea to get as close as possible to the keyword phrase that you were aiming for both on-page and in any AdWords campaigns.

Getting new backlinks will help your landing page rank better, and is a great way to spread the word!

Conclusion: Getting the Most from Landing Page SEO

While the above methods may take some time and effort, they are absolutely worthwhile. Making sure that your landing pages convert as well as rank for SEO is a recipe for true success.

So, once you've tried these methods, how can you measure the success of your landing page SEO strategy?

Using SEOptimer, you can see exactly how new backlinks are added to your landing page, as well as seeing a full view of your website's SEO profile.